Functional Materials Seminar

Applications of Powder Based Functional Materials

Functional materials can be defined in different ways. Typically, they make use of a distinct physical property other than bearing load. Examples of such properties are the magnetic, electrical, optical, biomedical, chemical, rheological or thermal ones, along with their combinations. They may also enable specific manufacturing processes in the form of temporary agents, due to their chemical, rheological or other physical characteristics.

Powder technologies - encompassing powder production, shaping, consolidation and post-consolidation processes - are at the origin of many functional devices. The growing understanding of powder-based processes has increased the ability to implement functionality into components, making functional materials an important part in current applications and future developments. These ones offer a new opportunity of expansion to the Powder Metallurgy (PM) sector.

Aware of these emerging applications, since 2018, EPMA have organised seminars on functional materials to support the PM community with up-to-day technical information. The first seminar (April 2018, Jülich, Germany) focused on the functional PM components for the electric car. The second one (April 2019, Bremen, Germany) reviewed the PM processing technologies applied to functional materials. The 2020 seminar (November 2020, San Sebastián, Spain) will be devoted to "Applications of powder based Functional Materials".

A panel of experts will present examples of actual and future applications of PM functional components, explaining the key requirement to provide the functionality, as well as covering the fabrication, structure and properties of the material/component. Attending to the application sector, presentations have being divided in four major categories: